MUP 132 – Kid Dares, Gator Hunts, and Other Terrible Ideas

In this episode, Murph and Chad have drafted a couple of guest hosts to fill out the ranks, with Bret Kramer from Sentinel Hill Press, and Mythos veteran and Arkham Gazette contributor (and Chad’s Cthulhu Maker) Nick Bresinsky. This episode was recorded on September 11, 2017.            

Campus Crier

The Dare, a single-scenario Kickstarter project that Bret Kramer talked about in this episode, is now live. (Full disclosure: Charles Gerard/Keeper Chad is helping with the project and edited the Kickstarter intro video – which he had way too much fun doing.) Dustin Wright, a resident of Rockport TX and longtime Chaosium employee is currently dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. A Go Fund Me account has been set up to help support him. This will help ensure Dustin’s immediate needs are met and offset costs associated with temporary living arrangements. Please feel free to donate what you can! Chaosium released a number of statements on fallow Kickstarter projects licensed under the company’s name. Horrors of War from Adam Scott Glancy, Punk Town from Miskatonic River Press and two Writhing Dark Kickstarters – all as-yet unfulfilled.
Horrors of War: “Chaosium met with Scott at Gen Con and discussed the Horrors of War license. We have confidence Scott can deliver on this project in the revised time frame he has put forward, and that he will give backers timely updates about progress until it is done.” Punktown: “Because a 50% preview of the book has been recently shared with backers, and the second half is in the final stages of layout, Chaosium has decided to keep the Punktown license in place and hopefully see this much delayed project through to completion in the coming months.” Writhing Dark: “We are well within our rights to terminate [Shane Tyree’s] agreement. But we don’t want backers to be prevented by Chaosium from getting what they paid Shane to produce. Because he has the actual product in hand and sincerely states that he still wishes to deliver, we have instead issued Shane a special license extension. This is strictly limited to fulfilling the original Writhing Dark and Extended Edition Kickstarter rewards and expires on completion. No additional or new material of any kind is permitted under this license. We have also encouraged Shane to reopen channels of communication with Kickstarter backers who have yet to receive their rewards.”
Pelgrane has released two products for Trail of Cthulhu: Out of The Woods – from Pelgrane Press is a new scenario anthology for Trail of Cthulhu with a woodsy focus. Features five scenarios by Adam Gauntlett, Lauren Roy, Chris Spivey, Ruth Tillman and Aaron Vanek, containing extensive handouts, maps and pre-generated characters for each adventure. Cthulhu City – “Cthulhu City is a setting for Trail of Cthulhu, usable for a full campaign in its own right or as a nightmarish intrusion into an existing game. The Investigators find themselves in a strange, corrupted Arkham, a ghastly metropolis. People – humans – live in the city, and seem bizarrely normal on first encounter – their concerns are the same mundane, day-to-day passions and trials of anyone in the modern world – but scratch the surface, and the Mythos spills forth. Motorcars drive down streets lined with sullen-eyed basalt cyclopean buildings raised by no human hand; at night, loathsome and titanic shapes move behind the clouds.” Andrew Leman is reading a retelling of Lovecraft’s The Picture in the House with famed Italian horror composer Fabio Frizzi providing the soundtrack. The release will also feature liner notes by weird fiction scholar S.T. Joshi with composition notes by Frizzi. Cadabra Records is releasing this for $32 on their website. There is also a “Liquid Blood-Filled Version” available fr $195. Cadabra has also released a number of other readings of Lovecraft accompanied with beautiful scores on their website, it’s worth checking out. Keeper Chad appeared on the Legends of Tabletop podcast for the NecronomiCon wrap-up. There’s a nice review out for the Masks of Nyarlathotep Companion by Paul St John Mackintosh. Chaosium fiction line editor James Lowder was interviewed extensively on the BAMF podcast. YSDC has released all of its actual play recordings for free to celebrate 12 years of play. They played 10 adventures, many of them campaigns, between September 2005 and September 2017

Topics

The Dare, kids and horror RPGs Monsters and Other Childish Things on RPPR Tales From the Loop Rachel Watches Star Trek, “Miri” Children of the Corn: (here is a copy of the movie on Blu-ray, and here is a copy of Night Shift, a collection of Stephen King’s short stories that includes Children of the Corn and I Am the Doorway, also mentioned during the show) https://www.amazon.com/Children-Corn-25th-Anniversary-Blu-ray/dp/B0026ICAOS https://www.amazon.com/Night-Shift-Stephen-King/dp/0307743640 The Brood, a film by David Cronenberg, which according to Wikipedia “follows a man uncovering an eccentric psychologist’s therapy techniques on his institutionalized wife, amidst a series of brutal murders committed from an offspring of mutant children that coincides with the investigation.” “It’s a Good Life,” an episode of Twilight Zone involving the creepiness of a kid whose wishes come true. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jlucx6rD7P4   What real-world places inspire your Lovecraftian imagination?]]>